CTFishTalk.com: Kayak Fishing Get-Together - East Twin Lake 08/11 - Connecticut Fishing Partners ( CT Fishing Partners ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT

The weather forecast for this Sunday, 08/11, looks about perfect. I plan to be at the State (cartop) Boat Launch at East Twin Lake in Salisbury early. I know it's a long haul for most members, so if we were to do a lunker pool or other such nonsense, I think we could start it fairly late, say, around 8:00 am. I'll bring some food and beverages for anyone who shows up.
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PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT

Well, it wasn't much of a gathering, but I had a blast. I fished from before sunup to after sundown, with only a break for lunch in between. I was joined by JJay (aka Jason aka Lobsterboy) for most of the day and coastieyaker (aka Pete) in the morning. Although the bite was slow in the morning, it picked up in the afternoon and evening. I ended up catching seven different species of fish: one chain pickerel; four or five sunnies; maybe 18 largemouth bass; one brown trout; two rock bass; one smallmouth bass; and two rainbow trout. My iPhone tried mostly unsuccessfully to find a signal and the battery drained completely, so I didn't take many photos, but Jason took a bunch. I'll try to post more, later.
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DirtyDawg10 · Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 2238 Location: Granby, CT

Cool! Wish I could have made it.

Marky2002S · Joined: 22 Jul 2013 Posts: 59 Location: Middlebury, CT

I wanted to go very badly unfortunately it was decided that my axle was gonna need replacing instead. Maybe one day I'll make it if there is ever another one organized.
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JJay · Joined: 23 Sep 2011 Posts: 113 Location: Farmington, CT

This area of Salisbury had little to no cell reception. My phone was switching from no service to a weak edge network connection all day which probably drained the battery faster than usual.

This is my first time out at Twin Lakes and although it was just the 3 of us, i had a great time out on the water. During our lunch break, Phil had brought his travel grill and grilled up some delicious steak sandwhiches and some ultra fresh trout he caught in the morning. We all appreciated and enjoyed the hot meal - Yum!

Fishing for me, was a bit slow as i was mostly working on my sun tan(burn). I landed a couple of pickerals and 6 large mouths, nothing over 14 inches.....well except this one MONSTER LMB !!

Here is my story: After 8 or so hours of fishing I realized my bag of fish was lacking compared to Phil's crammed bag of "United Nations of Multi Species Fish" ...... Yes, jealousy was brewing so i had to do something different and decided to tie on my super secret, no fish can resist, all-star special lure (aka - wacky senko). It wasn't long before i spotted this pocket of shaded water under some low hanging leafy tree branches. I side casted and skipped the senko right underneath the branches.... 12 seconds later.... my line starts to move away from under the tree branches, I set the hook and BOOM the fight is on - pole bending, line screaming, a little praying, self chanting (Big One, Big One!) An eternity later ( or 20 seconds real time), I was able to wrangle this big and thick Large Mouth's head to the side of my kayak. I was going in for the lip grip and as soon as i thought a had a strong grip - it would do this massive head shake to weaken my grip... i waited a few moments for it to calm down and at the same time grabbed my hawg trough with my other hand and place it across my lap prepping for the monster measure. I reach with both hands now and unhooked the small circle hook out of his big lip and finally pulled this MONSTER out of the water and immediately noticed the HUGE protruding belly on this guy as i layed him on the trough. Not 2 seconds later he did ANOTHER shake and plopped right back into the water. @#$$%#@$ and a few more @#$^#$$!@$# later i still couldn't believe i lost it like that - didn't even have time to see how long it measured.... it HAD to be over 30 inches. But then again everytime i think about it the length seems to get longer.... Phil says it was at least 16 inches .. oh well, there's always next time.

coastieyaker · Joined: 27 Jan 2013 Posts: 282

i had the same problem as phil and jjay, i must have heard
"loss of service" dozens of times throughout the day!
nonetheless, it was a blast getting out there with the guys.
i had zero luck with the fish but enjoyed the day, and definitely
enjoyed the korean beef Phil grilled up.

thanks for a great time to both Phil and J, I look forward to the next time

PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT

Here are some photos. I'm too busy to write much, but put them in chronological order. It was still dark when I got to the State (Cartop) Boat Launch. 5:34 am:

I got onto East Twin Lake in one of my kayaks, El Habañero. Here's a look back at the launch. 5:56 am:

I decided to head to the north end of the east bay. 6:05 am:

I was throwing a big Mepps bucktail inline spinnerbait when I caught my first species of fish, a chain pickerel. 6:20 am:

Although it was hooked in the lips, it must have gotten the big treble hook back into its gills before I set the hook. Confused

The sun finally peeked over the hills to the east. 6:34 am:

I headed under the bridge from the east bay to the west bay and headed around the shore of the peninsula, which is very shallow and rocky. I was throwing a wacky rigged Green Pumpkin with Large Red Flake five inch Senko when I caught my second species, a sunny. 7:24 am:

And then the wacky Senko got me my third species, a short largemouth bass. 7:54 am:

At about 8:00 am, I began to notice quite a lot of powerboat activity on the water. In addition to trout and bass fishermen in their boats, water skiers started to churn up the water. And for some reason, they all seemed to want to fly past within 30 feet of me. Mad

After I rounded the south end of the peninsula, I decided to paddle across the east bay to the marina at O'Hara's Landing. As I tried to stay out of the path of the water skiers and paddled over big wakes, I spotted Jason paddling up by the launch. He paddled down and met me at the marina, and we worked our way back up to the launch, where we found Pete preparing to get on the water. After we all got on the water, we headed up to the north end of the east bay to fish the lily pads. A Green and Yellow Live Target Hollow Body Frog got me my first keeper largemouth bass, a 13 incher. 9:18 am:

Shortly after, Jason boated a 14 incher and decided to challenge me to a lunker largemouth bass contest. Sucker! Laughing

I headed down the east shore and past the marina, while Jason and Pete followed the route that I had taken earlier in the morning, under the bridge and around the peninsula. After I passed the marina, Jason rounded the peninsula, cut across the east bay and met back up with me, while Pete headed back up to the lily pads. Banging the shore wasn't working well for any of us, so I switched to throwing a drop shot 2-1/2 inch Gulp! Minnow. As I retrieved my minnow while talking with Jason, I saw a rainbow trout follow it all the way up to the boat. I told Jason, "I'm going to catch a drop shot trout!" And I did, when I hooked into my fourth species, a nice brown trout. 11:50 am:

Nice, huh, Derek? Very Happy

I put the trout onto a stringer and we headed back to the launch for lunch. We had charcoal-grilled Korean-style beef and charcoal-grilled freshly caught brown trout. Yum!

Pete took off after lunch, but Jason and I decided to get back on the water and check out West Twin Lake. After we went under the bridge and into the west bay, we headed counter-clockwise along the shore and actually began to catch some fish. After catching a bunch of largemouth bass up to only 15 inches long, I caught my lunker largemouth bass somewhere along the west shore. It was only 15-7/16 inches long, but I was glad to get it. 3:18 pm:

We finally made it to the passage to West Twin Lake. We had to paddle under two small bridges to get there. 4:08 pm:

West Twin Lake is much shallower and weedier than East Twin Lake. Although I caught some short largemouth bass and Jason got a couple of chain pickerel, we really didn't get much. However, I did catch my fifth species, a rock bass. 5:54 pm:

After we got back into East Twin Lake, we decided to fish our way back to the launch counter-clockwise around the shore. It quickly became obvious that we had fished the wrong part of the lake in the morning. The bottom drops off much more quickly around the south shore and the south end of the east shore of the lake. We began catching fish off of docks and underneath trees that overhang the shore. At one point, Jason boated a largemouth bass that I think was probably 16 or more inches long, but he dropped it back into the water before he measured it on his Hawg Trough. Darn! Laughing

As the sun dropped lower in the sky, I tossed a wacky Senko in the shadow of a swim platform and boated my sixth species, a tiny smallmouth bass. Shocked

7:18 pm:

I didn't think that East Twin Lake even had smallies in it. When we got to the south end of the east shore, I tied on a drop shot minnow to fish deeper, again, while Jason continued to bang the shore. It didn't take long for the minnow to get me my seventh species, a rainbow trout. 7:43 pm:

Seven species of fish! Surprised

Whoo Hoo!

I caught a second rainbow trout a short while later. We soon noticed that the power boat traffic had finally begun to die down, but, unfortunately, only because the light had begun to fail. We paddled back up to the launch and got off of the water as darkness fell. I really enjoyed fishing from before sunup to after sundown, but with all of the power boat traffic on the lakes, I wish that I had brought my power boat, The Other Woman, Too, instead of El Habañero. Catching trout with a drop shot rig was a nice surprise, though. Linner!

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eatsleepfish · Joined: 10 May 2013 Posts: 18

You should have a kayak outing somewhere more local than Twin Lakes. I live in New Britain and am usually yaking on the weekends solo, but I like staying close so I can get on the water before sunrise without having to wake up at 330am
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DirtyDawg10 · Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 2238 Location: Granby, CT

More dropshot trout Very Happy

I love it!

PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT

StinkyMatt · Joined: 19 Aug 2013 Posts: 7

New guy here. Do kayakers have any sites specific to them or is this the place to be in CT fishing.

PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT